Three criminals have been sentenced to time in prison in Suffolk this week – including an Ipswich man who coughed in the face of police officers after telling them he had coronavirus.
Man jailed after coughing in face of police officers telling them he had coronavirus
A man has been jailed for 16 weeks after he told police officers he had coronavirus and coughed in their faces.
Billy Wilson, 22, of no fixed address, appeared before Ipswich Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, April 16, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for two offences of common assault on an emergency worker.
Wilson had been arrested just 24 hours earlier in connection with a road traffic collision in Sutton and was questioned and later charged.
While in custody he coughed in the faces of two police officers after falsely claiming he had coronavirus.
Read more about the case here.
‘Loner’ who sparked terror alert jailed for five years
A Suffolk man who sparked a terror alert resulting in the evacuation of 60 homes has been jailed for firearms possession.
Suspicious items were found at the flat of Clinton Hicks, 59, in Normanshurst Close, Lowestoft, during a search by police on July 28 last year.
Officers recovered two inert grenades and a revolver loaded with five of 46 blank rounds found in the flat along with a quantity of ball-bearings and chemicals.
Hicks was arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm and being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.
Following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Command, no further action was taken in relation to the terrorism offence.
Judge Emma Peters described Hicks as a “loner” and a “relatively strange man”, whose only friends were cats, but she found no reason to spare Hicks the minimum mandatory five-year sentence.
Find out more about the incident here.
Man jailed for role in two ram-raids on village Co-op and SPAR stores
Jesse Gatehouse was jailed for more than four years at Ipswich Crown Court for his part in ram-raids on two Suffolk shops.
The 30-year-old was awaiting sentence for one destructive burglary when he admitted being part of an earlier attempted raid.
He was among three men who used a stolen forklift to smash into the Co-op in Debenham, causing more than £30,000 of damage and making off with a cash machine containing £78,420.
A week earlier a stolen Land Rover was reversed into the front of a SPAR shop in Glemsford, near Sudbury.
In total, Gatehouse admitted six charges covering the two raids, including burglary, vehicle theft and criminal damage, for which he was sentenced.
Russell Butcher, prosecuting, said the offences took significant planning and were aggravated by their impact on the community.
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